A North Bay-based environmental group is voicing concerns with Ear Falls’ and Ignace’s recent interest in hosting a deep geological repository for the nation’s nuclear waste.

In late October, Northwatch posted an open letter to residents of each community by direct mail. The letter claims that the information provided by Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) at local kiosks omits and understates several important elements of the discussion.

Northwatch’s Brennain Lloyd says she believes four key points aren’t suitably addressed in the NWMO information materials, specifically: that nuclear waste is extremely hazardous and will remain so for thousands of years, outlasting the containers it is stored in; that the long term reliability of geological repositories has not been established; that no country has yet permanently disposed of nuclear fuel waste in rock; and that the concept of burying nuclear waste has already been rejected by Atomic Energy of Canada following a ten year review.

“We have a concern that it is hard to make good decisions without good information,” said Lloyd in the Oct. 28 letter. “One commitment we are making to Ignace and other communities who may be involved in the NWMO process is to support the public discussion by providing access to information that will help residents understand what is being asked of them and evaluate the NWMO proposal independently.”

A response to the Northwatch letter has been issued by the NWMO and Communications Manager Michael Krizanc was eager to address the contents of the Northwatch letter.

“We as an organization have a responsibility to answer questions that are raised to the satisfaction of the people who ask them,” said Krizanc. “In that spirit, we’re providing a response to these initial questions that have been raised by Northwatch.”

The NWMO’s four and a half page response goes into detail in regards to the multi-barrier containment system used to isolate radioactive material from the environment. NWMO says the proposed containment system has a projected design life of 100,000 years

Radioactive materials are sealed inside ceramic pellets, placed within corrosion-resistant zircalloy tubes, housed in copper or corrosion resistant steel containers and then sealed by a layer of bentonite clay. The stable host rock, at a depth of 500m, acts as a final buffer.

Krizanc says Northwatch’s statement that the repository concept is unproven is somewhat true on the surface, though it fails to recognize the billions of dollars and decades of research that has gone into what has been internationally recognized as the best possible approach.

Canada’s efforts to develop a repository are in line with other countries like Sweden, Finland, Japan, Switzerland and the UK who are advancing along similar programs in a very careful and measured manner.

“She raises the legitimate question that there is not a working deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel in the world. I think most people can see that point. This research has been going on for 30 to 40 years. It’s mature research that has been peer-reviewed and is believed to be the best way to manage used nuclear fuel. But it’s not right to say that Canada shouldn’t go down this path because no one else has done it. You have the cases of Sweden and Finland who have both gone through a process to identify willing communities and have begun to build their repositories. Ten days ago the European Union issued a directive for all of its nuclear members to develop plans for deep geological repositories.”